Top 10 Tips to Increase Agility

Leadership is the most important element in shifting behaviour and building the required culture for increasing business agility. Leaders must drive the right values, policies and structures. They must also demonstrate the right behaviours and mindsets. Failing to do so stifles agile methodologies. Here are 10 things leaders can do to create a more agile organisation:

1. Envision the desired culture

Be clear on the current and target culture of the business, understanding the reasons and benefits behind the shift (the “why”). Focus on choosing and driving the right values, policies and structures.

Particular attention should be paid to those which land in the ‘Create’ and ‘Collaborate’ quadrants of the Competing Values Framework, first published in 1983 by R.E. Quinn and J. Rohrbaugh, as a result of their research into organisational culture and leadership. These allow for better collaboration, greater experimentation, new ideas and fast learning. Leaders should remove any HR policies and rules that are overly controlling and dictatorial as these will not treat people like adults and destroy trust, such as setting strict working hours.

Leadership must be role models who show the behaviours they would like to see to build the desired culture.

2. Communicate an inspiring vision and shared goal for teams to target

Leaders need to set the “what” and ensure teams are fully empowered with the “how” regarding fulfilling the set vision. This engenders a culture of autonomy, ownership, accountability and trust. It provides teams with a sense of purpose, greater happiness, and helps teams adapt, deliver and innovate at speed.

3. Track employee engagement and continuously improve it over time

Doing so supports employee happiness and engagement level growth – two of the leading indicators of company effectiveness.

4. Decentralise decision-making and build interconnected cross-functional teams

Encourage flat hierarchies and decentralised decision-making, with the responsibility being with the teams who are closest to the work and customers. Leaders should continuously look at ways to delegate work safely, ensuring there is a clear goal for the team to work towards. This allows for quicker decisions and shortens the lead time to deliver value to customers.

Leaders must also invest in building small networks of interconnected cross-functional teams, with open communication channels, who are customer focused and aligned, working towards the same goal as mentioned above. This minimises dependencies and hand-offs, resulting in quicker delivery

5. Remove obstacles for people

Support teams and those doing the work by ensuring people are respected and heard, while removing any obstacles they may face. Leaders must respond and proactively unblock teams to ensure there is the right environment to perform. This helps team members deliver and innovate at speed, and feel more valued, respected and engaged.

6. Foster a culture of respect and psychological safety

Instil the belief that employees won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up or experimenting and failing. This allows for a positive and safe mindset across the business, allowing for better employee wellbeing, collaboration and motivation.

Leaders should also share information openly within the organisation, fostering a transparent culture where decisions, challenges, and successes are communicated openly – trust is built through open and honest communication.

7. Invest in people’s personal development and growth

Spend time coaching and mentoring people around you to ensure their personal development and growth. Move away from annual reviews and move towards regular coaching conversations around goals. Provide feedback regularly and in the moment, avoiding any threat response.

This allows for better quality and more “fresh in the memory” conversations. It will help enhance people’s engagement and productivity, and also build an environment of psychological safety and trust.

Leaders should also spend time and build connections with the teams, where the work happens. There is no better way to understand the culture of the business, the mood of the team and any systematic impediments which make teams less effective. A status report and/or a sprint “demo” will not provide this!

8. Encourage teams to work in rapid short work cycles with continuous feedback

This enables innovation and the ability to pivot to accommodate new changes. Look at ways to increase the flow of value to customers. This will help your teams deliver changes more quickly which is rewarding.

9. Ensure there is downtime for teams to come up with new ideas

This provides space for teams to resolve problems, making them more efficient, and more importantly it provides headspace for innovation to percolate and for personal development. New ideas rarely come from people who are always busy!

10. Eliminate waste

Aim to get rid of work that doesn’t directly contribute value to the customer as it’s wasteful. For example, over-investing time on detailed up-front planning and estimation which is prone to inaccuracy. Other wasteful activities could include unnecessary bureaucracy with change management processes or an over-zealous internal audit function.

Summing up…

The relationship between company culture and leadership are interconnected. Behaviour and resulting cultures are driven by the leaders. That’s why it is vital that leaders act as role models and show the behaviours they would like to see to shift organisational culture in the right direction.

• Find out how we’ve made our clients more agile…

• Speak to us about adopting agile practices…

About the author

Archie Webb is a Delivery Leader and Coach in Agile Leadership and Business Agility at Mindera, with over 10 years of experience in the software development product space.